Yoga does the body good

I recently came across an article in the New York Times entitled 'How Yoga Can Wreck Your Body."

The first thing I noticed was the comical pictures of first-time students accompanying the article, which gave the impression that the article was a joke.

Unfortunately, it was. It was sensational, accompanied by several rare stories of practitioners who suffered severe injuries from practicing advanced positions they were not ready for, performing them incorrectly or pushing their bodies far beyond their limits.

Glenn Black, yogi for the past 40 years, was the main source throughout the article. One of his most striking statements was "the vast majority of people should give up yoga altogether, because it's simply too likely to cause harm."

Not exactly groundbreaking research here, because injury is a side effect of exercise. Yoga can be for everyone, from young to old. Its deep stretching can help common ailments, such as back pain.

A good instructor will caution against pushing your body beyond what it is capable of doing and encourage students to stop or modify a pose if they feel pain. Leaving competition at the door is another important element---just because someone else in your class can do binds, where an arm is brought around the body or leg to grasp the other arm, does not mean you should try, too.

Just having common sense to know when you're not able to tackle something advanced, such as wheel, which involves laying on your back and pushing up to an arc while lifting one leg, or a handstand, is key.

Most practitioners will not be able to tackle challenging poses due to physical limitations, like flying pigeon, where an aerial split is performed, with one foot hooking onto an arm while performing a handstand. Poses like those can take years to master and must be eased into carefully after a thorough warm-up.

There is no shame in toppling over in simple balance positions. Crane is one of the most common ones, which involves starting in a deep squat and raising up onto your hands, with knees and shins resting on the back of your arms. I've been doing yoga for a year and a half and can only balance in crane for a few seconds.

Yoga teaches practitioners to be calm and to clear their minds of stress and other hindrances as they use their breath to transition through poses. I love the post-class feeling: refreshed, relaxed and comfortably stretched out.

Try out a yoga class and see its benefits for yourself---BVRMC's Fitness Center has a fantastic multi-level class on Wednesday evenings.

Namaste.